Crop Seasons

"So ya pick an' you pick, and then she's done..."

The young man squatted on his heels, “I’ll tell ya,” he said quietly. “They’s a big-son-of-a-bitch peach orchard I worked in. Takes nine men all the year roun’…Takes three thousan’ men for two weeks when them peaches is ripe. Got to have ‘em or the peaches’ll rot. So what do they do?  They send out handbills all over hell. They need three thousan’ and they get six thousan’. They get men for what they wanta pay. If ya don’t want take what they pay, goddamn it they’s a thousan’ waitin’ for your job. So ya pick an’ ya pick, an’ then she’s done... When ya get ‘em picked, ever’ goddam one is picked. There ain’t another damn thing in that part a the country to do. An’ them owners don’t want you there no more. Three thousan’ of you. The work’s done. You might steal, you might get drunk, you might jus’ raise hell. An’ besides, you don’ look nice, livin’ in ol’ tents; an’ it’s pretty country, but you stink it up. They don’ want you aroun’. So they kick you out, they move you along. That’s how it is.”

 -From John Steinbeck, Grapes of Wrath (1939)

On Again, Off Again

Workers followed the crops. Heavy demand for labor to pick lettuce and citrus in Southern California occurred in January and February. The months for picking peas were April and May, primarily in San Luis Obispo and Alameda Counties. In May, farmers in the Sacramento Valley needed about 13,000 migrant laborers to pick stone fruits, asparagus and peas. The fall harvest started in the Imperial Valley and moved northward as vegetables, fruits, nuts, cotton and grain reached maturity. October drew 22,000 migrant laborers to the San Joaquin Valley to pick cotton and grapes.

Truck Crops Used Temporary Labor

California agriculture, especially truck crops (crops that were grown and then trucked to market), was characterized by the heavy use of migratory labor for a number of reasons. The crops grown were marked by the need for hand labor, requiring more workers per acre. As well, particular crops like peas had short growing seasons, resulting in available work for only short periods of time. Because of this, housing for farm laborers were often temporary or were in poor conditions, as there was little incentive for growers to maintain housing that was not used for most of the year.

Table of California labor requirements (CA State Relief Administration)